Editor's Note:
Only one business leader in Fortune has ever been the top business person of the year twice, Elon Musk (last in 2013). His body is full of controversy. Some people call him Rocket man, Iron Man, the savior of the traditional automobile industry, and others call him a liar, a bully, a villain who thinks of himself as a savior.
Why did Fortune choose him again this year? Read our exclusive in-depth article. Through the complexity of Musk, and his significant achievements this year, you can learn about the broader business world of 2020.
To view the full list of 2020 Fortune Business People of the Year, as well as more lists and in-depth business reports in the future, please pay attention to the official website of Fortune Chinese Network and WeChat, and download and install the official Fortune app "Fortune Plus" to get the first notification.
On November 21, 2019, Musk introduced Tesla's all-electric Cyberruck at the press conference, an electric pickup truck designed in part from the sci-fi movie Blade Runner. Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN—AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The countdown was 45 minutes and everything got serious. Of course, there's no reason not to be serious about a $62 million, 208-foot-tall rocket standing on a launch pad about to be launched beyond Earth's atmosphere.
On a mild Sunday in November, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians were nervously checking the notes. After dusk, the warmth of the sun dissipated and the atmosphere at the launch site became cold.
Inside the cabin, four astronauts sat in a silent row and waited, three from NASA and one from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Outside the spacecraft is the Falcon 9 rocket, which carries the mission. The makers of the spacecraft and rockets are the American Space Exploration Technology Company, or SpaceX for short, which is headquartered in the Los Angeles area and is led by Elon Musk.
The launch was carried out in collaboration with SpaceX and NASA, which has not been uncommon over the past decade, with SpaceX having completed more than 100 launches with Falcon rockets and often undertaking government launch missions.
This time, however, is a bit unusual, with SpaceX, as a private company, allowed to transport American astronauts to and from orbit. Less than a week before the mission began, NASA's permit was officially issued.
The launch pad is 39A, which is where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left Earth for space aboard Apollo 11. If the mission is successful, the astronauts will travel to the International Space Station for a six-month scientific experiment, which could further prove the viability of commercial spaceflight.
At 44:55, a male voice broke the silence. "The launch team is ready for entry, arm retraction, propellant loading and launch." The launch director said.
Countdown to 1:47. Refueling is complete. With a roaring hiss, rockets and spacecraft are drowned out by a huge white mist that is generated when gaseous oxygen meets the coastal air.
Countdown to 0:42. A crackling voice crackled in the intercom: "Ready to launch." Another voice came from inside the cabin: "Here is the Tenacity." "That's the name of the Dragon Ship." Received, 'Launch.' ’”
3,2,1。 The chemicals burning in the tail of the rocket emit a piercing scream. A deafening roar engulfed the walkie-talkie. "Tenacity lifts off!" A thunderous pillar of light rushed toward the stars, and an eyewitness on the ground declared excitedly. "All mankind has launched a brave exploration of space, which is beyond the limit of the earth's gravity."
At 8:09 p.m. ET, four astronauts flew into low-Earth orbit at a speed of 17,000 miles (about 27,358.848 kilometers) to successfully complete the first mission of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.
Probably afraid of contracting the new crown virus, Musk unusually low-key did not appear in public, but posted a new tweet on Twitter: the expression of a red heart.
Focus on space: On November 15, 2020, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was launched at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which will send four astronauts to the International Space Station. Image credit: JOE BURBANK—ORLANDO SENTINEL/TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE VIA GETTY IMAGES
It was just an ordinary day in Elon Musk's life.
Some executives enjoy playing golf in their spare time; others enjoy reading, meditating or hiking. Musk's hobby is to send people into space — and that's just his night show.
Musk, 49, the founder and CEO of private company SpaceX, is now valued at $46 billion and is expected to skyrocket in the future, after all, his vision is to colonize Mars. (Reviving America's famous space program?) Just by the way. ）
Then there's Tesla, which has recently reached $520 billion in market capitalization, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. Its market capitalization is more than five times that of U.S. auto giants General Motors and Ford combined. With tenacious will and just the right business talent, Musk has built electric vehicle manufacturers and battery manufacturers, pulling the entire automotive industry into the 21st century and attracting investors from all over the world.
Tesla's revenue has grown at an average rate of 52% over the past three years, and it was recently announced that it has achieved profitability for the fifth consecutive quarter. News in November that Tesla's inclusion in the S&P 500 from December 1 further boosted the stock price.
Musk's personal net worth has soared to nearly $128 billion, becoming the world's second-richest man after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, slightly ahead of Bill Gates, Bloomberg reported.
Musk has also made a lot of achievements in other areas, and the goal of the Boring Co. company he founded is to dig tunnels to alleviate traffic congestion in the city. Neuralink strives to implement implantable brain-computer interfaces. He also co-founded and funded OpenAI, which left the board because parts of the business may compete with Tesla, and OpenAI is developing "friendly" AI that poses no threat to social development. And Hyperloop? It was just a sci-fi traffic concept, and he decided to open up the source code to the wider tech community.
Remember, Elon Musk is only 24 hours a day, just like all of us.
As long as Musk can accomplish any of these achievements, there are good reasons to be among the Fortune Business People of the Year. (In fact, he did, and in 2013 we called him the "Triple Threat.") Despite the long-term face of many variables, Musk is still trying to achieve five major projects, yes, elon Musk, who is so busy, is still trying to upgrade. His dreams are much more than that.
Casually ask the CEO of any industry, which CEO motivates them the most, and the most frequent answer is Musk's name. They say Elon Musk is Rocketman, Iron Man, the savior of the evil traditional auto industry. He is an ambitious entrepreneur with enough execution to make the impossible possible. He is a designer, a technologist, and incredibly versatile. He is also an artist who excels at subversion, maintains an amazing passion, and is fearless.
However, if you ask these executives which CEO is the most annoying to them, Musk's name is also at the top of the list. In the eyes of some, he is a liar, a bully, a despicable villain who presents himself as a savior and never accepts criticism. Some people think that he is a hypocrite, hypocritical, rash and exaggerated, and unfit to lead mankind into the future. Others say Musk is a master of rules-playing tasks and a homeless billionaire who treats people like fools.
But those who know Musk best say the truth lies somewhere in between. Elon Musk is complex and only human. (Better not to think that way.) Through the complexity of Musk, and his significant achievements this year, we are able to understand the broader business world of 2020.
"Head" Musk
Rows of cars are lined up at social distancing intervals, with 24 cars in each row, for a total of 12 rows. The midday sun shines brightly on the silver, white, blue and red hoods. Every car is a brand new Tesla Model S.
You think this is a 21st-century drive-in movie theater in Silicon Valley? Of course not. It's a "Battery Day" event hosted by Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.
On this warm September afternoon, drivers gather here to hear Elon Musk talk about the company's performance this year and take the opportunity to learn about tesla's plans to develop new products in the future, including the racing Model S Plaid, which will soon meet them. The car was named not because it had anything to do with costume cuts, but as a tribute to the top speed of the spaceship in the 1987 spoof movie Spaceballs. (No one is saying Musk doesn't have a sense of humor.) ）
As Musk walked onto the stage wearing a black T-shirt with a pattern, people cheered loudly from the open car windows and raised their fists in salute to him. People honked their car horns to greet Musk. Tesla's CEO responded with a happy smile.
He looked at the audience in front of him and grinned, "Hello everyone. Everybody was sitting in the car, which made it a little hard for me to understand what everyone was thinking, but we could only do that. Faced with this obviously somewhat absurd scene, Musk burst out laughing. This year's event coincides with the COVID-19 pandemic and is naturally different from last year's traditional event with slide shows held indoors.
And Musk's mood this year is significantly better than last year's, for reasons that speak for themselves.
In September 2019, Tesla's higher-priced models were in a slump, Tesla's subsidiary SolarCity produced solar panels involving multiple fires, resulting in the company being sued by Walmart (the two sides have settled), and the escalation of trade frictions between China and the United States may affect its manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, which is about to be put into operation, and Tesla's stock price fell by a third in 9 months under the influence of this series of factors.
At the time, Musk did not make a passionate speech on stage, but hoped to re-change the content of the conversation: "It was an extremely bad year, but many good things are happening." ”
This statement proved to be a bit too cautious. This year, as Musk addressed an audience in cars, Tesla's stock price rose eightfold in 12 months, thanks in part to Tesla's stock split in August. The decision suddenly drove investors crazy.
And, tesla has more good news. There are reports that Tesla's partner Panasonic will invest an additional $100 million in Gigafactory No. 1 on the outskirts of Reno. With the Shanghai plant operational, Tesla has set a record number of cars it can produce and deliver. Construction of the Berlin plant is also progressing well. The Berlin plant will further expand Tesla's production capacity and help the company avoid global trade frictions.
In other words, everything is going according to plan. Tesla plans to account for about a third of the global electric vehicle market, which is nearly $200 billion, while the company is also slowly and steadily growing in the multi-trillion-dollar auto market.
This is a remarkable achievement. After years of investing recklessly in automation, battery science and other proprietary technologies, Tesla has developed a vertically integrated, software-oriented, and product-differentiated business strategy that is very different from traditional automakers.
Tesla has weathered its toughest financial stages, gaining a lot of capital that gives it the ability to create and grow a new automaker. In the process, Musk has engaged in a lengthy confrontation with the shorts, and between 2017 and 2019, when Tesla was ready to start scaling up the production of the lowest-priced Model 3 model, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, but he led the company through the difficulties.
But skeptics remain: According to financial data firm S3 Partners, nearly 6 percent of Tesla's outstanding shares have been sold short, with as much as $22 billion in bets on Tesla's money so far without any return.
In Silicon Valley, there are many examples of tech startups going from drafting a business plan to raising a financing to going bankrupt. But companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Boring Co., etc., whether it's their size, the speed of growth, or their earnings, have skyrocketed exponentially.
Musk insists that the outside world believes that the company's innovation is his credit, but in fact they all come from the company's tens of thousands of employees. Nonetheless, these large-scale projects have been able to continue normally after encountering many challenges, thanks to Musk's ability to execute. (Musk declined to comment on the matter.) "I don't want to win an award or be recognized by others," he said. ”）
Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium Communications, from McLean, Virginia, said he first met Musk 12 or 13 years ago, and it was only a few years after SpaceX successfully completed its first rocket launch. Today, Iridium Communications is SpaceX's largest commercial customer, launching 75 satellites for the company on 8 rockets.
"No matter who we're talking to or what kind of issues we're talking about, Musk can always prioritize," Desch said. Even when he founded Tesla and other companies, he was still involved in every key strategic decision. ”
What is it like to work directly with Musk? A former executive at one of Musk's companies said you have to hide all your thoughts because Musk will question you politely. Bound by a confidentiality agreement, the executive asked for anonymity.
If you're not fully prepared, he can see through it at a glance. He will remember you, and you will not have good results.
The executive said: "Most of the time, he was the smartest person in the room. He can think quickly and comprehensively about the decision tree, and he is always able to take one step and look at ten, or even fifteen, steps. He'll close his eyes and look up, and you'll see his eyes spinning fast. He may remain in this state for a long time. ”
However, this state can also be wrong.
The executive added: "Musk thinks he's the smartest. This is true in most cases, but there are exceptions to everything. That's where his mistake stems. He was reluctant to listen to more professional people. ”
Embattled Musk
Musk may be smart and shrewd, but his personality has pros and cons, which sometimes prevent him from succeeding.
Gregory Shea, an associate professor of management at Wharton, said: "Over time, to remain innovative, you have to be tenacious rather than stubborn, and you have to be optimistic but not overly disconnected from reality. ”
Every mistake Musk does, both internally and externally, is legendary. Some people don't care about this, they think that people with quirks are often geniuses. But some people don't see him as "genius is genius" and therefore won't quickly forget his actions. Musk is sometimes blamed. Whenever this happens, he becomes the focus of public opinion attacks.
In mid-November, with an appalling number of new confirmed covid-19 cases in the United States and breaking records — in the first 10 days of this month alone, the number of new confirmed covid-19 cases had reached 1 million — Musk announced to the world on Twitter that he may also be infected with covid-19.
The CEO, who has been publicly ignoring COVID-19 for months, tweeted: "Today I did four COVID-19 tests. The same nurse tested me on the same machine with rapid antigen testing technology from BD, a leading provider of diagnostic tools. The result was twice negative and twice positive. This one is too fake. ”
Musk's words do make a lot of sense: If the person being tested is not absolutely infected with poison, the so-called rapid antigen test is not accurate. The Food and Drug Administration said the same thing in an Nov. 3 letter to the healthcare industry, but with more technical wording.
Emma Bell, a bioinformatics scientist in Canada, also clarified in her public post in a tweet about Musk, in which she mocked the CEO for not seeming to understand the principles of rapid detection and therefore believed that detection did not work.
Bell's tweet went viral, writing: "Space Karen concocted that she spat bitterly at her millions of fans without carefully reading the information about the test." ("Karen" refers to those who are ignorant and is a derogatory term for such white women.) ）
"Space Karen" has become a buzzword, and Musk has become "Blonde Bob" online. But it's just the latest iteration of Musk's chaotic big-scale PR work, many of which originated on Twitter.
Musk, like U.S. President Donald Trump, has used social media sites as his own megaphones to speak out to the world, with mixed results.
Not only does he post a lot, but he's also unguarded, his fans are over 40 million, they have to accept his bold and often bizarre thinking, he argues with competitors and people who are skeptical of Tesla, and his claimed product delivery times are often unrealistic and unattainable.
A former Tesla executive said: "As an engineer, it's really interesting to have to go through late-night tweets to learn about the new deadline. ”
Musk does sometimes pay a heavy price for his remarks on social media.
In May, he tweeted that Tesla's stock price was "too high." Just a few words reduced Tesla's market capitalization by $14 billion, including Musk's own $3 billion stake in the company.
For example, who doesn't know that he planted a heel in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission? In August 2018, Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private. "The money is ready." He wrote in the article. The SEC moved swiftly, accusing the CEO of "misleading tweets" of alleged securities fraud. The two sides eventually reached a settlement in which Musk would have to pay a $20 million fine and not be chairman of Tesla's board for at least three years.
It's unclear whether Musk's Twitter storm is a tactic for him or if he can't control himself.
Judy Smith, chief executive of Smith & Co., a prominent crisis management expert, said: "I think he may really care about his reputation, but everyone is famous in a different way. ”
Whatever his intentions, it's clear that Musk's public image doesn't stand the test because few CEOs of public companies do. Inside the company, for better or worse, he was known for being frank. Former employees say they've never encountered such a cold candor and such a demanding, fast-paced atmosphere anywhere else that it's hard for many executives to hold out for long.
Especially at Tesla, Musk has replaced an astonishing number of executives. The executives' departures were not all voluntary.
A former Tesla HR employee, who did not want to be named, said: "There was a culture of fear in the company at the time. Anyone can be fired at any time. Musk is the ultimate leader. He's the king, he can fire people, he can fire anyone he doesn't want, and the whole thing is in his control. Musk owns about 20 percent of Tesla, and there are a lot of loyal supporters on the company's board.
Of the five people tesla originally managed the team, only Musk remained at the company. (JB Straubel, Tesla's former chief technology officer, left in July 2019 after 15 years at Tesla.) Many other key figures have also left, including George Blankenhipp, vice president of global retail, and Greg Rachel, former vice president of operations and production. The departure of everyone may cause a loss of system knowledge. Perhaps it also has an impact on the company's ability to attract the next round of experienced executives. One of Tesla's most recent chief counsels (three left in 12 months) was a former divorce lawyer for Musk. It's not that Malone isn't qualified to serve as lead counsel. But it does raise some questions: As Tesla's growth picks up, how wide is Musk's search for front-line candidates today?
However, in interviews with Musk's employees, no one expressed regrets joining any of his companies.
Rick Avalos said: "For me, it was like getting the chance to perform with Eddie Van Helen, but to get into Elon Musk's company, it takes a lot of willpower. Avalos has been in charge of recruiting at Tesla and has also been the head of talent at Neuralink, an artificial intelligence startup musk co-founded with others (he is also a veteran musician).
Shea, a professor at Wharton, said Musk's propensity to change executives could actually have some positive side effects.
He mentioned a term called "creative abrasion." The term was coined by a car designer, Jerry Hershberg, and is a great fit for Tesla. The idea is that ideas emerge when they are constantly challenged and people clash in productive ways.
Professor Shay said: "Over time, one of the characteristics of creative people is that creative networks form around them. "Perhaps, Musk's way of staying innovative is not just to come up with new ideas, but also to bring in new people and knock out some people who have been working for a while.
With or without strategy, whatever it is, Musk's pursuit of creative careers is relentless, and he seems to have the same obsession with everything in life, rightly or wrongly. Of course, there were some detractors along the way, but it also brought in loyal fans.
Musk is particularly keen on some Tesla owners, who follow any sign of a new Tesla product with the same enthusiasm they have for Apple's products. (There's even a Tesla line of tequilas that sold out in a few hours in early November.) It started out as a prank on Musk's Twitter account. ）
In fact, one of Tesla's biggest challenges to date is how supply meets demand.
The company has been plagued by production delays for years. To address this problem, Tesla has invested heavily in new manufacturing plants in places like China and Europe, where customers wait up to four months for new cars to be delivered.
Three analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote in a recent report: "We believe that 2021 will be a pivotal year for Tesla as it will start production at two new plants and launch a range of new products." ”
Musk said he expects Tesla to meet its 2020 production target: deliver 500,000 vehicles. Wall Street analysts seem to agree with that claim. In the third quarter of 2020, Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Tesla delivered a record 139,300 vehicles. (As usual, Musk reopened the company's factory in Fremont in defiance of California's ban, producing until the quarantine order was officially lifted.) On May 11, he tweeted: "If anyone is arrested, I hope I am alone." "Eventually no one was arrested, but then several workers tested positive for COVID-19. ）
Tesla has a lot to prove, not just its ability to significantly increase production, but also its ability to deliver on its promise of fully autonomous vehicles. Now that commitment is also facing an extension.
However, in the eyes of investors, it is these ambitions that have allowed the 17-year-old company to quickly overtake traditional automakers. This is exactly what characterizes Musk.
Musk, Business Person of the Year
In 2012, Musk talked about his vision for commercial space travel on "60 Minutes."
Host Scott Pellet asked the entrepreneur how he felt about the criticism of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan. The two astronauts have gone to the U.S. Congress to protest the commercialization of space, arguing that the U.S. government's reliance on private spacecraft could threaten U.S. space dominance.
Musk replied with tears in his eyes and a trembling voice: "This makes me very sad." They're my heroes, so it's really hard for me to accept their criticism. I hope they will be able to come and visit... Look at the effort we put in, I think it will make them change their minds. ”
Fast forward to 2020, and it's clear that NASA's rocket launch pads are getting unusually busy, thanks in large part to SpaceX.
Musk may not have had time to change the minds of the two astronauts, as Armstrong died in 2012, and the last human who ever walked on the moon, Cernan, died in 2017, but he apparently got NASA, who made them world-famous, to accept his vision.
In celebrating the successful launch of the Fortitude rocket and its milestones for SpaceX and NASA, Musk paid tribute to the center of the statement and set his sights further afield: "It's a great honor that builds confidence in our efforts to return to the moon, travel to Mars, and ultimately help humanity become a multi-planet species." ”
Sounds out of reach? truly. But the controversial businessman who built cool electric cars and turned recyclable rockets into reality must not be underestimated. While there are many voices of criticism hoping to see him fail, it's hard to bet on Elon Musk himself and his ambitions to rush out of the universe.
If he had acted as he always had, he might have left more than his mark on Earth. His legends, shortcomings and all his possessions may be passed down across multiple planets.
How to become like Elon
Leaders: Four key lessons
We interviewed business experts, people who watched Musk, and musk's former colleagues about what makes Musk such an efficient and unruly executive.
1. Never innovate based on the status quo
To solve the biggest problems, don't start with the existing infrastructure, abandon everything and start over. A true lunar landing plan will rethink the problem, not the solution. All problems will be solved.
2. Hire talented people and tap into their potential
When you work for Musk, you have the idea that creative engineers can solve any problem and anything is possible. The executive is known to put young engineers with significant responsibility for solving problems, such as having them solve complex rocket technical problems overnight in the hangar.
3. Understand the customer's problem
Musk's frank, witty tweets often make headlines for all sorts of wrong reasons — "regional directors say something rude" — but a closer look at the way he says it shows that it's a CEO casually chatting with his clients. This interactivity makes Musk so popular that he occasionally proposes unconventional solutions.
4. Words and deeds are important
Despite Musk's not-so-good reputation online, those who know Musk best say he is very polite and polite, even in the face of great pressure. "It was the glory of his parents." A colleague he has worked with for a long time said that when negotiating deals, he often makes a splash.
Another edition of this article appeared in the December 2020/January 2021 issue of Fortune magazine under the title Business Person of the Year: Brave Elon.
By Andrew Nusca and Michal Lev-Rem
Translated by Min, Feb
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